Planned Improvements to bus services in Regional Cities 2008-2009

KC61

There seems to be an impression that there are no service improvements planned for any of the regional cities.

There are in fact plans for significant improvements in all of the regional cities during 2008 and 2009, which have started with the delivery of new low-floor buses.

Having removed the spin and other elements, these are the Bus Éireann development plans for Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and the Greater Dublin area:

CORK:
More new low floor accessible buses and coaches for Cork
New Cork city bus services
Enhancements to existing Cork city and suburban bus services
New Cork Commuter services
Enhancements to existing Cork Commuter services
A new Town service for Ballincollig

New Buses and Coaches
Crucial to the full implementation of the Bus Éireann Cork Development Plan are the new vehicles the Company is seeking under Transport 21.

Bus Éireann plans for 2007 to 2009 are based on the introduction of 56 new buses to the Cork Fleet over the 3 year period - 36 replacement vehicles and 20 additional.

32 of these new vehicles (19 replacement and 13 additional) have been approved by the Department of Transport under Transport 21 and will be arriving within the next 12 months.

The Plan is underpinned by the introduction of these resources. The new vehicles will arrive on a phased basis, and service improvements will be introduced on a similar basis.

Services improvements are contingent on the provision of licenses.

All of the new vehicles will be low floor wheelchair accessible and will also be bio-fuel compatible.

New Cork City Bus Routes
New routes planned for Cork city include the provision of a new 10A service to run in parallel to the existing No 10. The 10A service will operate between the City Centre and Mahon Point, via Boreenmanna Road.

A new No 16 service will operate between the City centre/Rochestown/Mount Oval/Maryborough Hill.

Enhanced existing Cork City and Suburban services
In line with the phased introduction of new vehicles, the next step will be to increase service frequencies on all the main existing city and suburban routes to meet the demand of the growing population. Existing routes will also be lengthened to provide services to a greater number of residential areas.

Frequencies will be boosted on City service such as the:
No 5 service from CIT to Kent Station via the City Centre
No 7 service from Ballyvolane/City Centre/Donnybrook
No 8 service from Bishopstown/City Centre/Mayfield
No 14 service from CUH/Togher/City Centre

Existing routes will also be extended to cater for more areas and passengers. For example, the No 3 service from Ballyphehane/City Centre/Farranree will be extended to Lehenaghmore.

Similar frequency improvements will be introduced on Bus Éireann Cork Suburban services:
221 Cork/Glanmire
222 Cork/Carrigaline/Crosshaven
223 Cork/Passage/Monkstown
224 Cork/Blarney/Tower

New Cork Commuter Services
242A: Mallow Rail Feeder via Mitchelstown/Fermoy
243A Cork/Whitechurch

Enhanced Cork Commuter Services
231 Cork/Macroom/Ballyvourney
This service will be extended to Kenmare morning and evening
245 Cork/Watergrasshill/Rathcormac/Fermoy
249 Cork/Airport/Kinsale
261 Cork/Midleton/Ballinacurra

A New Town Service for Ballincollig
In addition a new town service (Route 229) is planned for Ballincollig, earmarked for introduction in 2009. The service will operate between the growing number of housing estates in the residential areas of Ballincollig and Ballincollig Town Centre, where customers can link with a high frequency service to Cork.


LIMERICK
New city services
Enhancements to existing services, and
Enhancements to Commuter routes

New City Routes
New routes planned for Limerick city include the provision of 12 new daily services on

Raheen/City Centre via Dock Road
Thomand Village/City Centre
Annacotty /City Centre.

More City Departures
Departures on existing services are also set to increase significantly.

Departures on the O’Malley Park and Ballycummin routes are in line to double over the next three years, with the introduction of new fleet under Transport 21.

The Coonagh, Pineview, Caherdavin and UL routes will also get a significant increase in services.

Expansion of the Ennis Town Service
An expansion of the Ennis Town route is also planned, with additional services to be provided. Three additional services are planned, for the Clarecastle, Eastern Residential and Western Residential Areas. 18 departures will operate on daily basis.

New Buses
19 additional and 5 replacement fully accessible buses are due to enter the Limerick fleet over the coming three years, with more than half coming into the network by the end of 2008.


Limerick Region
An overall 133 per cent increase in departures on Enhanced Commuter Routes to Glin, Charleville, Newport/Nenagh and Ennis.

High frequency on Metropolitan links connecting Limerick-Shannon-Ennis.

New Ennis Town Services to provide 18 departures daily on three routes serving Clarecastle and the East and West residential areas of the town.


GALWAY
More departures on City routes
- an additional 2000 services a week are to be provided

New High frequency service on City routes
– all city bus service will increase in frequency from an existing average of 25/30 minutes to every 15 minutes

Significantly enhanced Commuter services
– frequency of service on key Commuter routes are to radically increase e.g. Moycullen/Galway and Claregalway/Galway Commuter services will move from a 3 hourly frequency to a 30 minute frequency; Spiddal/Galway from a 3 hourly frequency to a 45 minute frequency

A new city route
- serving new development at Ardaun and Roscam proposed

Improvement in punctuality and reliability of service
- through the provision of new radial routes into and out of the city centre, and a move away from cross-city routes which are prone to being affected by city congestion.

74% increase in departures on city services
500% increase in departures on enhanced commuter routes
A new low floor wheelchair accessible city bus fleet
How will Bus Éireann deliver on its service expansion plan?

Bus Éireann will deliver on its development plan through the introduction of 54 new buses over three years of the development plan, comprising 21 replacement and 33 additional buses, representing an investment of €15 m.

15 new buses have already been procured under Transport 21 and are due to come into service in Galway in 2007/2008.

WATERFORD
The key improvements planned for Waterford:
The introduction of a new low floor wheelchair accessible city fleet
Additional buses to facilitate an expansion in services for customers
The upgrading of frequencies on key City routes to every 12/15 minutes
More departures
More services
New routes

New Buses – replacement and additional
Under Transport 21, a new fleet of 13 low floor wheelchair accessible city buses is to be provided in 2007/2008, replacing the existing Waterford city fleet.

Subject to funding being approved, a further 22 buses are due to come into service in 2008-2009, and will enable Bus Éireann to deliver on its service expansion plan.

The Bus Éireann service expansion plan will also deliver improved frequencies on city routes:
A new 12/15 minute service frequency is planned for the:
Route 2c St John’s Park/Patrick Street
Route 4c the Logloss/Clock Tower
Route 5c Hillview/Farran Park route

The 360 service Waterford/Tramore will be upgraded to a 20 minute service frequency.

New Sunday services
Under the terms of the plan Sunday services could be introduced for the first time on all city routes, operating every 30 minutes. The Waterford/Tramore route would get additional Sunday services.

Plans for Park n Ride and High Frequency Corridors:
A Park & Ride site (linking WIT, Whitfield Clinic and the City Centre) is also under consideration by Bus Éireann along with a High frequency transport corridor (N25 Cork Rd to the Quays).

New City and Commuter Routes and Services
New routes and services are also to be introduced in Waterford.

In the city, two new orbital bus routes are planned.
The existing 5c Hillview/Farran Park route will be split and expanded to create a dedicated service for both Hillview and for Farran Park.

Furthermore, the Farran Park service will be extended to Williamstown to cater for increased demand in the area.

Commuter services will also be enhanced. Three new services will be provided including 8 new services to operate between Waterford and Kilkenny each way, linking the two major centres of population in the South-East, 8 new services will operate each way between Waterford/ Mooncain / Fiddown /Portlaw and Kilmeaden and 6 new services each way for Waterford/Mullinvat/New Ross.

In summary, the Bus Éireann Waterford Development plan can deliver:

278 extra departures on existing routes
136 extra departures on new routes
A total increase in departures of nearly 200%

EASTERN REGION:
- Key Improvements -
The key improvements in the Bus Éireann Expansion Plan include the introduction of:

A new ‘city-style service frequency’ on all major Commuter routes into Dublin, with buses running as regularly as every 12 minutes throughout the day. Examples:
Ashbourne/Dublin: a bus every 12 minutes all day
Navan/Dublin: a bus every 15 minutes all day
Naas/Dublin: a bus every 15 minutes all day

A range of new services to provide more choice for commuters e.g. new, direct hourly services connecting Dublin Airport with Commuter locations such as Navan/ Dunshaughlin, Newbridge/Naas, Mullingar/Enfield and Wicklow/Bray on a ‘dawn-till-dusk’ basis

New Fleet: The expansion in service and frequencies will be enabled by the introduction of 70 new buses and coaches – all low floor, wheelchair accessible and bio fuel compatible (including high capacity accessible double deck coaches)

Colm R

I can only judge on what I am familliar with, which is Cork, and all I can say is it smells of "token gesture"!! It doesn't go far enough. Buses are easy, its not a huge infrastructural project. Start now and make it customer centric.

From that, I can only assume that the other cities also come under "token gesture".

The policy of the people in power is to build a transport system in Dublin which everyone can use. This is the way it should be.
Outside of Dublin, you need a car!

Nostradamus

All very impressive I must say.

GALWAY
More departures on City routes
- an additional 2000 services a week are to be provided

:eek:

Colm R

Just to further back up my point. The difference is in Cork, they say we will improve things.

KC61 wrote: »

Frequencies will be boosted on City service such as the:
No 5 service from CIT to Kent Station via the City Centre
No 7 service from Ballyvolane/City Centre/Donnybrook
No 8 service from Bishopstown/City Centre/Mayfield
No 14 service from CUH/Togher/City Centre

In the Dublin, they tell you how they will improve things.

KC61 wrote: »

A new ‘city-style service frequency’ on all major Commuter routes into Dublin, with buses running as regularly as every 12 minutes throughout the day. Examples:
Ashbourne/Dublin: a bus every 12 minutes all day
Navan/Dublin: a bus every 15 minutes all day
Naas/Dublin: a bus every 15 minutes all day

As I always say, Dublin and its commuting towns deserves and needs better public transport.

But the other cities do too.

The following is an email I sent to a councillor in Cork.

Hi <name>

Just wanted to mail you regarding Transport in Ireland (not Dublin). I've recently moved to Dublin from Cork and to be honest a lot of things make me angry up here. Not least public transport. Now, I know Dublin has got its problems. Bad planning, congestion, etc. etc.

However, last week, I got up out of bed, and wasn't feeling too well, and couldn't face the cycle to work. So I went out onto the Howth Road, and just missed a bus. Ah well, I thought, there should be one in the next 10 or 15 minutes. 2 minutes later, 3 buses came around the corner. All of them stopped to leave people off. So I picked one and off I went. I looked back to see another bus come around the corner. As the bus went down the North Strand into the city center, I counted at one stage 13 buses in view. I could also see the Dart.

Now, Dublin has its problems. (A lot of them :-) ) and it does need more buses, luas', better bus lanes, metros and for the love of God, cycle lanes.

But what about Cork. It won't take an expensive consultant to tell you that Corks services are dire and what needs to be done. I used to think that it was all I could expect and to live with it. But when I moved up here, I now know I am entitled to the better and so are the people of Cork and the other cities. I used to use the Number 14. Pathetic is the polite way of labelling it.

So when I hear news about the interconnector, the Dart, new Dublin Buses and the Luas, this is what I think:

The Government is working to build a public transport infrastructure in Dublin for everyone. For everywhere else, you need a car and if you need public transport, you are going to have to be very flexible.

So whats the Green Policy on improving things outside of Dublin? And is there a promise to overhaul the workings of Public Transport in the "regional" cities?

And for the love of God, don't mention the Middleton Railway line again again again!!!

thejuggler

A New Town Service for Ballincollig
In addition a new town service (Route 229) is planned for Ballincollig, earmarked for introduction in 2009. The service will operate between the growing number of housing estates in the residential areas of Ballincollig and Ballincollig Town Centre, where customers can link with a high frequency service to Cork.

I cannot understand how this is going to work. The existing Ballincollig-Cork route runs from Classis Lake in Ovens on the outskirts of the town right through the town which consists of housing estates built on both sides of a 4-5 km road. I don't see the need for a service bringing people from the estates to Ballincollig Town Centre.
What is required is a high frequency service linking Ballincollig to Cork via the Carrigrohane Straight. The current service follows a circuitous route taking in the rush hour traffic bottlenecks of Model Farm Road, Dennehys Cross and Wilton Road. Meanwhile the new Green Route on the Carrigrohane Straight lies underused except for the occasional expressway bus to Macroom and Kerry. Rerouting this service alone would save at least a third of the journey time.

KC61

Nostradamus wrote: »

All very impressive I must say.

(GALWAY
More departures on City routes
- an additional 2000 services a week are to be provided )

:eek:

Quite possible if 33 additional buses are added to the fleet in the city.

Colm R

thejuggler wrote: »

A New Town Service for Ballincollig
In addition a new town service (Route 229) is planned for Ballincollig, earmarked for introduction in 2009. The service will operate between the growing number of housing estates in the residential areas of Ballincollig and Ballincollig Town Centre, where customers can link with a high frequency service to Cork.

I cannot understand how this is going to work. The existing Ballincollig-Cork route runs from Classis Lake in Ovens on the outskirts of the town right through the town which consists of housing estates built on both sides of a 4-5 km road. I don't see the need for a service bringing people from the estates to Ballincollig Town Centre.
What is required is a high frequency service linking Ballincollig to Cork via the Carrigrohane Straight. The current service follows a circuitous route taking in the rush hour traffic bottlenecks of Model Farm Road, Dennehys Cross and Wilton Road. Meanwhile the new Green Route on the Carrigrohane Straight lies underused except for the occasional expressway bus to Macroom and Kerry. Rerouting this service alone would save at least a third of the journey time.

agreee with you. Just to reiterate, this is token gesture at its best.

What Balincollig should have is two distinct city routes. One serving CIT and UCC via the Model Farm Road, and one via the Carrigrohane straight to the city. If you are looking for precedent, look at the xpressos in Dublin.

From what I can remember, its at the drivers discretion as to what way they want to go.

Similar, with the route Airport/Kinsale. Sometimes they go by the link, sometimes by Turners Cross.

thejuggler

Colm R wrote: »

From what I can remember, its at the drivers discretion as to what way they want to go.

To be fair it's not down to discretion. A small number of buses - maybe 2 or 3 per day go directly into Cork via the straight road. I think these buses are indicated on the timetable. As you said two separate routes are needed. The "town service" as proposed seems unnecessary.

Colm R

If they want to go down the line of a town service, then that service could extend to UCC and back. Then it becomes a local VIABLE service.

Why oh why won't they start doing things that make a difference to how the city works. The P&R at the Kinsale Road Roundabout is a huge success. Why not put another P&R near the Ballincollig bypass, with the bus going to the city via the Straight Road. (This should be seperate to the service to Ballincollig)

What about a P&R in the Northside, somewhere north of Blackpool. Give the Blackpool Bypass a bus lane in each direction and put a massive increase in service. Put a huge Car Park out by North Point Business Park and in one clean, quick and cheap way, you have taken a whole load of cars out of the city. Why, because people will see its easier to travel to the center on the bus.

Faranree sits up the hill from the Blackpool bypass. The number 3 comes from there down into Blackpool Village before the center. Why not put two routes from Faranree, one to the city center expree via the bypass, and one to City via Blackpool. Two distinct frequent viable services which will again take cars out of the city.

But no, what they are going to do is extend the route thus increasing customers, without increasing capacity.

I've just had a quick look at the Cork City Website. It says all Green Routes to be finished by 2008 with most of them already complete. Check it out

http://www.corkcity.ie/ourservices/roadstransportation/trafficdivision/greenroutes/filedownload,2886,en.pdf

I'm afraid if this crap is going on in Cork, then it must be the same elsewhere.

I won't be thanking anyone for stupid small measures. Complete overhaul and reorganisation is what is required.

E92

The new number 10A is a great idea, I've used it a few times, and it's much faster than the normal 10 for where I want to go(Mahon Point usually), but why does it only run during peak hours(7-7), not at all on a Saturday or Sunday, and worst of all, why only every 50 mins?

Even if they doubled the frequency to 25 mins, with the normal 10 running every 25 mins as it does, you could then have a service running every 10-15 mins into town for anyone who wants to get a bus into/out of town between Mahon Point and the Silver Quay(that's a distance of over 2 miles for those of you not based in Cork)?

You'd never know, people might actually stop using cars and get the bus in instead(especially the 10A which goes via the Boreenmana road and you can get to Mahon Point in only 15 mins compared to 25 with the 10 from the City Centre).

rekrow

KC61 wrote: »

Significantly enhanced Commuter services
– frequency of service on key Commuter routes are to radically increase e.g. Moycullen/Galway and Claregalway/Galway Commuter services will move from a 3 hourly frequency to a 30 minute frequency; Spiddal/Galway from a 3 hourly frequency to a 45 minute frequency

Where is this info coming from? I live in claregalway and I am not aware of any commuter service. There is no mention of it on the Galway city services.

http://www.buseireann.ie/site/your_journey/city_town_services.asp#galway

The only one I can think of is the Tuam to Galway service which is a request stop only in Claregalway. It claims to get from Claregalway to the bus station in the city centre in 27 minutes. It takes me 25 minutes to from claregalway to mervue on the edge of the city at 800 and that isn't even using the Tuam road! A real commuter service for Claregalway would entail a P+R site at the junction of the N17/N63 bus stops at Parkmore, Ballybrit, and Mervue, and dedicated bus lane from Parkmore to the end of the Tuam road where it meets Bohermore road.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=1683049213102251319,53.360938,-8.927463%3B17908052805412052079,53.282370,-9.037900&saddr=N17+%4053.360938,+-8.927463&daddr=53.282433,-9.037907&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=17&sll=53.28292,-9.037135&sspn=0.004683,0.009978&ie=UTF8&z=17

P+R from the Racecourse was a joke this year. People getting on buses and sitting in the same traffic jam that they would in their car. Buses were empty and added to the traffic as few cars going into the Racecourse held up traffic turning right. Work has been going for the last 4 months at claregalway to build the outbound bus lane and it is no where near finished. Forgive me for being negative but I think an improved commuter service for Claregalway is a bit longer than 2009. Before anyone replies and says that if people used the park and ride there would be less traffic, the service as it was set out was very poor, weaknesses even made the local press. http://www.galwaynews.ie/2236-park-and-ride-flop

A few things to consider when planning a commuting service in Galway:
1. It rains at least 200 days of the year. Bus shelters are a must.
2. Most businesses especially on the edge of the city have free parking. When you have a car taxed and insured you are not going to leave it at home and pay a bus fare to sit in the same traffic. There has to be a carrot. Priority bus routes or a bus lane.
3. Even at 30 minute intervals that would give 3 services between 800 -900 and 1700-1800. Generously allowing 100 passengers per service that would give 300 places. Traffic through claregalway is currently at estimated at 10 to 15000 movements each way per day. Significant amount of which is at peak times. If they are serious about getting people out of cars they would need to be looking at being able to ramp up very quickly if the demand grows. People are not going to pay to be squashed into a bus when they have the comfort of their own car for a lower cost. Responding quickly to consumer demand is not a forte of Irish public services.

I am not against public transport but it does need to be done right!

KC61

All of this was announced a year ago - I suspect the timing had a lot to do with the impending elections at the time. The announcements had quite a lot of spin in them too, and given that nothing was going to happen for some time were very opportunist!

However, now that the buses have started arriving, and as I'd read numerous posts bemoaning the lack of any progress in the Bus Eireann city services, I thought it might be appropriate to summarise the details.

The original press releases are all included in the archive news section (2007) of the Bus Eireann website - you will need to go back to last spring.

Bear in mind that these services are being phased in over 2008 and 2009.

KC61

The second new route in Cork, route 16 as referred to above, was launched on Monday.


From www.buseireann.ie

New Cork City Service - Published - 4th April 2008


Bus Éireann wishes to advise customers of a new Cork City service, Table 16, operating from South Mall to Mount Oval.

Service commences on Sunday, 6 April 2008.

Timetable is at
http://www.buseireann.ie/site/your_journey/printed_timetable_pdfs/city/cork16.pdf

invincibleirish

great news, however Cork still needs double deckers, more routes, better frequency on the key routes, nite link buses yada yada yada.....

Stark

Colm R wrote: »

I've just had a quick look at the Cork City Website. It says all Green Routes to be finished by 2008 with most of them already complete. Check it out

http://www.corkcity.ie/ourservices/roadstransportation/trafficdivision/greenroutes/filedownload,2886,en.pdf

I'm afraid if this crap is going on in Cork, then it must be the same elsewhere.

A new footpath is enough to satisfy their definition of a green route. Hence why they're able to trot out stats saying so many kms of green route when we can't see improvements anywhere.

Zoney

Colm R wrote: »

I've just had a quick look at the Cork City Website. It says all Green Routes to be finished by 2008 with most of them already complete. Check it out

http://www.corkcity.ie/ourservices/roadstransportation/trafficdivision/greenroutes/filedownload,2886,en.pdf

I'm afraid if this crap is going on in Cork, then it must be the same elsewhere.

It's worse. In Limerick two of the main routes are being held up because 150 or so well-off residents (Ennis Road and O'Connell Avenue) couldn't be bothered parking their cars in their driveway, garage at the back via rear laneway, or across the road. They have a couple of councillors of a similar mindset feeding out nonsense about it all. I believe the council finally overrode all the concerns, but now that's being criticised.

Bus Éireann, who most Limerick bus passengers probably have choice words for (try waiting 45 mins+ for a bus of 15 mins frequency and have a full bus arrive), have weighed in and pretty much said they're having trouble running a bus service at all at all with traffic the way it is and no bus lanes except two short stretches in the city.

Chris_533976

Cork Bus, Limerick Bus, Waterford Bus etc etc just like Dublin Bus.

Thats whats needed.

Solair

I've attempted to use the busses in Cork a few times and have gone back to my car. They are an absolute joke!

I can honestly say that the Cork bus 'system' is about as much use as a chocolate tea pot. It would rate, in my experience, as one of the most ridiculous and useless public transport networks I have ever experienced.

First of all there's a sort of a crazy setup where there's a distinction between City and "Country" busses.

i.e. there are routes 1 through 16 in the city which abruptly end within a couple of miles of the city centre.

Then huge population growing suburban areas on the edge of the city are served by 'country' busses which are numbered and treated as if they were Bus Eireann Express way routes.
In some cases they're even served by coaches rather than city busses!!!

These "country busses" also operate limited stops in the city so skip areas that they pass through!

These serve the city's satellite towns (a radius of aprox 7 to 10 miles max) and the outer suburbs.

Frankly, the system is a complete disgrace it's discouraging people from using it. It doesn't work and hasn't been changed to even remotely reflect the development of Cork or its suburbs.

From what I've heard the Galway, Limerick and Waterford services are every bit as bad.

They absolutely need to put some focus on providing proper public transport in cities other than Dublin.

Cork's ideally suited to a good bus network and it could work perfectly. Instead it's stuck with some kind of a system that seems to reflect the city's needs in about 1908 not 2008!

A few shiney new busses isn't going to solve anything!

Getting rid of Bus Eireann and creating a locally run proper city bus network might!

E92

The Western Road, Grange, part of the road to the airport and bits of the city centre are the only places that I see with bus lane. That isn't a spelling mistake by me, the bus lane runs in one direction and one direction only.

The big problem in Cork is that most of our city is so narrow that most of the roads are barely wide enough for 2 buses. It's impossible to have bus lanes even in one direction under these circumstances really.

Chris_533976

One thing they need to do is stop the stupidity.

They have Rush Hour only bus lanes on the way out of Cork to the east (cant remember the road name). Great, I'm sure all the parked lorries and cars vacate the bus lane during the rush hour.

Stark

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Great, I'm sure all the parked lorries and cars vacate the bus lane during the rush hour.

I could start a whole new rant on the attitude to parking enforcement down in Cork

invincibleirish

Chris_533976 wrote: »

One thing they need to do is stop the stupidity.

They have Rush Hour only bus lanes on the way out of Cork to the east (cant remember the road name). Great, I'm sure all the parked lorries and cars vacate the bus lane during the rush hour.

Its particularly obscene inward on the Western Rd., it might be a bit overblown to have 24/7 buslanes at the moment, but surely the hours can be increased to say 7.30 am -7.30 pm.

also the Airport Green route is not that effective. before you can get to the bus lane in rush hour, you have to Queue from the airport roundabout down to the traffic lights for Forge Hill/Douglas.theres 10/15 mins in traffic right there.

invincibleirish

Solair wrote: »

I've attempted to use the busses in Cork a few times and have gone back to my car. They are an absolute joke!

I can honestly say that the Cork bus 'system' is about as much use as a chocolate tea pot. It would rate, in my experience, as one of the most ridiculous and useless public transport networks I have ever experienced.

First of all there's a sort of a crazy setup where there's a distinction between City and "Country" busses.

i.e. there are routes 1 through 16 in the city which abruptly end within a couple of miles of the city centre.

Then huge population growing suburban areas on the edge of the city are served by 'country' busses which are numbered and treated as if they were Bus Eireann Express way routes.
In some cases they're even served by coaches rather than city busses!!!

These "country busses" also operate limited stops in the city so skip areas that they pass through!

These serve the city's satellite towns (a radius of aprox 7 to 10 miles max) and the outer suburbs.

Frankly, the system is a complete disgrace it's discouraging people from using it. It doesn't work and hasn't been changed to even remotely reflect the development of Cork or its suburbs.

From what I've heard the Galway, Limerick and Waterford services are every bit as bad.

They absolutely need to put some focus on providing proper public transport in cities other than Dublin.

Cork's ideally suited to a good bus network and it could work perfectly. Instead it's stuck with some kind of a system that seems to reflect the city's needs in about 1908 not 2008!

A few shiney new busses isn't going to solve anything!

Getting rid of Bus Eireann and creating a locally run proper city bus network might!

QFT

Marydoll!

To be honest, I think that the busses are fine. Yes it is easy to get stuck in traffic at rush hour (If you were in a car you would have the same problem) but I can honestly say that I have never had any major delays with the busses that I use. I mainly use the Number 2 to Mahon in Cork city.
Cork does need more frequent busses, I will give you that much and maybe a few new routes.
It would be very difficult to add more bus lanes. Cork is a very old city and obviously the streets were not meant for the amount of traffic on the roads today, let alone busses!!!

superhooper

What is the story with cars using the bus lanes during rush hour, in particular Wilton road. Muppets! I rarely use the bus but as a driver this behaviour puzzles me. We are truly living up to our muck savage rep. Also what is the buzz with taxis using them as raceways after peak times to pass traffic on the inside.